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TRAVELLER

3D Resource Management Narrative

It was supposed to be a simple mission to discover life among the stars… But waking up from a year-long stasis, aboard the USS Traveller you find yourself alone with no sign of where the crew went, or where the ship is heading. Met with the insurmountable odds of space, you are forced to survive with the limited supplies the ship has left and chart a way home.

Engine:

Platform:

Custom-made by Team WDK

PC (Console-friendly)

MY ROLES:

  • LEAD DESIGNER

  • LEAD ARTIST

DUTIES:

  • Prototyping in Unity 3D

  • Mechanic Design

  • Design Optimization

  • Work Delegation

  • Art Documentation

  • 3D Model Texturing

  • Mentorship of Teammates

  • C# Scripting

  • Quest/Event Design

  • Economy Readjustment

  • Morale Encouragement

  • 3D Modelling

  • Scene Lighting

  • Team Conflict Management

  • Level Design

  • System/Systemic Design

  • Design Documentation

  • Puzzle Design

  • UV Unwrapping

  • Gameplay Flow Design

Design, Art and Asset

I was responsible for formal design and art documentations throughout the whole project. Each document went through multiple stages of revamps, some scrapped and some added when there was a need.

  • Documented the original design idea and revamped ideas that came after

  • Documented level designs and revamped versions

  • Documented the gimmick gym document

  • Documented puzzle designs including research and proposals

  • Kept a record of references on Google Slides for our artists to refer to

  • Documented every asset that made it into our custom engine for easier importing and placement of the assets (models, textures) according to the level designed

  • Presentation slides
Aesthetics of the Game

Our team did not have any full-time artists but I was able to lead and mentor a few willing teammates to create assets with me.

Ship (Environment)

  • Revamped many versions before final

  • 3D Modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing of assets.​

  • Scene lighting

ResCubes (Resource Cubes)

  • 3D Modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing of all ResCubes

  • Revamped a few versions

Main Menu

  • Revamping design of main menu to a diegetic style

  • Scene lighting

  • Art assets

Diorama

  • 3D Modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing of all assets

  • Scene composition and lighting in Unreal Engine 4

  • Setting camera control and game mode blueprints in project for easier viewing

Crafting Prototypes in Unity 3D

We built 2 main prototypes: a playable prototype, and a gimmick gym. Most of the assets between the prototypes are shared but I had to script more for the gimmick gym to allow a coherent flow from start to end through a mission.

Systemic Design of the Ship System

  • Designed how the ship's state affects the facilities available to the player and events that occur such as bursting pipes. Scripting of ship which includes:

    • Modules: rooms of the ship that may or may not be powered

    • Doors: can be locked and opened​

    • Door Locks: can power the opening of its connected door during emergencies

    • Lights: default lit mode and red lit mode during emergencies

    • Breakable parts: ​Pipes, hulls, solar fins

Machineries

  • Scripted all machineries, how they worked, and how they are connected to the ship system

  • Machineries include: Generator, ​​

Player Mechanics

  • Movement on ground/in ship and movement in zero-gravity environment

  • Transitions between the two types of player movements

  • Jet-pack mechanic

  • Pick-up, dropping, and interacting with objects

  • Maintenance interactions​

  • Stamina consumption

Gravity Gun/Glove Mechanic

  • Scripting of Equip/Unequip

  • Scripting of pulling non-static objects towards it and holding them in place

  • Scripting of blasting non-static objects away from it

Cartopad Mechanic

  • Scripting of Equip/Unequip

User Interface​

  • Spatial UI instructions/information above interactable object 

  • Spatial menu experiment where instead of a flat main menu, menu is part of the world.

  • Camera behavior (Locked mode for diegetic menu)

  • Show/hide/update maintenance progress UI

  • Player stamina and oxygen HUD is shown and updates according to the number of steps and duration the player is in zero-gravity environment.

GAM300_WDK_Traveller_10_Oct_2021_20_57_05.png

We started this project with ambitious hearts to create a systemic resource-management game heavily influenced by Outer Wilds (game) and The Martian (2015 film) and its charismatic actor Matt Damon. Our original design lead had his visions set on creating a space-adventure style gameplay that revolved around resource cubes that he later named "Rescubes". The first step to our project were ideating what sort of mechanics could revolve around these Rescubes. Some ideas included playing with objects in a zero-gravity environment and having gravity gloves/gun that would pull objects towards the player but also allow the player to throw things around. As the art lead, I was in-charge of creating a diorama that would represent the art style we wanted to drive towards.

You can check out the diorama here:

Traveller_Rescubes.png
Traveller_Diorama_5.png

Unfortunately, as the milestones drew close, we found ourselves cutting a lot of content out. Though most assets had been modelled and ready for use, they were archived so that we could focus on the more important aspects of the gameplay. We also realized that the prototype we had built in Unity 3D would not be fully translated into our custom engine as we hoped due to limitations and miscommunication. About 4 months into the project, the engine was still missing core features we needed for the game and more content was cut to make more time to focus on the core mechanics. There were also changes to the main responsibilities between team members to increase work efficiency. One such example was that I took over the design lead role and sharing the art responsibilities with the newly appointed co-art lead. 

Traveller_Editor1.png
Traveller_Editor5.png

In the end, there were a lot of good lessons learnt from this project. Taking over the mantle of design lead was not something I sought for but what we needed during our time of crisis to keep the team together. This opportunity allowed me to better understand the different perspectives of my teammates and handle team conflicts calmly. There's always some heartache when what you planned or have done doesn't make it into the final project, but it's the grit to persevere to see the project to its end that really matters. Regardless of the stumbles along the way I am grateful for my team and their efforts in making Traveller, an awesome game bridled with potential for much more interesting content.

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